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September 23, 2010

ESPN: Four Days In October

When the night of October 16, 2004 came to a merciful end ... the vaunted Yankee lineup, led by A-Rod, Jeter, and Sheffield, had just extended their ALCS lead to three games to none, pounding out 19 runs against their hated rivals. The next night, in Game 4, the Yankees took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, then turned the game over to Mariano Rivera, the best relief pitcher in postseason history, to secure yet another trip to the World Series. But ...

Over four consecutive days and nights, this unlikely group of Red Sox miraculously won four straight games ... [this film] takes an in-depth look at the 96 hours that brought salvation to Red Sox Nation and made baseball history in the process. ...

[T]heir generations-old inferiority complex to the Yankees is over. Now, the single biggest postseason flop in baseball history does not belong to some Red Sox team ... Instead, the new and uncontested champions of the October gag are the New York Yankees. And the greatest, gutsiest, most nearly impossible comeback to steal a pennant in all the annals of baseball now belongs to the self-proclaimed "idiots" of the '04 Red Sox. ...

For generations, the Yankees have assiduously cultivated a quasi-religious form of self-worship that leaves its pinstripe players with a conviction of their superiority and all other teams with vague issues surrounding their own inadequacies. ... Now, at least one team sees through it.

[T]he Red Sox [stole] the pennant from the Yankees not once but four times within 72 heart-stopping hours ...

The true distinction of this fabulous week was that this ALCS was the most fun -- the most unadulterated, disbelieving, decades-overdue fun -- that baseball has experienced in our time. And maybe, if you like a pinch of malice with your meat, ever.

19 comments:

I have already watched that trailer approx. 5,353 times, and I am not done yet. I want this thing out on DVD the day after it's first aired, and I want that DVD in my possession on the same day, and then I will watch it approx. 10,562 times, because even the trailer contains footage I haven't yet seen of these games / that ALCS.

And, wanted to say I love the shot of the Yankees fan at the end of the trailer, which you also screencapped above.

I'm going to watch 'Still We Believe' right before it to rekindle the hellacious feelings of gigantic suckitude brought on by 2003 - then sit down to enjoy the 04 happy ending. I can't wait! Burns's Tenth Inning should be fantastic too. As a foreigner I was basically introduced to baseball by Ken Burns's 'Baseball'.